Roku made a big announcement about the Roku Channel today yet buried the headline. Couched in a group of announcements about new Roku Channel features including the ability to sign up for premium services via the channel is an announcement that the Roku mobile app is about to become a mobile Roku player when it updates in 2019.
The popular Roku mobile app will soon enable users to watch content from The Roku Channel users with iOS and Android devices will be able to use the Roku mobile app without a Roku device, enabling them to watch The Roku Channel anytime, anywhere in the United States. Users will be able to start a video on a Roku player or Roku TV and pick up from where they left off while on the go.
There are not a lot of details regarding this update at the moment. For instance we do not know if users will be able to access programming from any app or if it means that the Roku app will be linked with the Roku Channel, which seems more likely. There had been a lot of speculation that Roku could eventually use its mobile app in this way one day giving it the ability to jump onto other platforms without having to push out an entirely new app. When it goes though IOS and Android devices will be playing Roku content.
